Valve Anti-Cheat
Valve Anti-Cheat, otherwise known as VAC, is an anti-cheating system created by Valve and used mainly for Steam. It has stopped numerous amount of players from cheating online. When a player is detected cheating in VAC secure server, the player will be marked as cheating and will get banned from VAC servers permanently. History With the first version of VAC, a ban took force almost instantly after being detected, and the cheater had to wait 2 years to have the account unbanned. Since VAC's second version, cheaters are not banned automatically. With the second version, Valve instituted a policy of 'delayed bans,' the theory being that once a new hack is developed which circumvents the VAC system, it will spread amongst the 'cheating' community - by delaying the initial ban, Valve hopes to identify (and ban) as many cheaters as possible. Like any software detection system, some cheats are not detected by VAC, and at times the only effective anti-cheat solution is a human administrator watching an online game. Some servers implement a vote system, in which case players can call for a vote to kick or ban the cheater. VAC's success at identifying cheats and banning those who use them has also provided a boost in the purchasing of private cheats. These cheats are updated frequently to minimize the risk of detection, and are generally only available to a trusted list of recipients who collectively promise not to reveal the workaround. Despite this, some servers implement a 'vote-kick' or 'vote-ban' system that allows players to vote to kick or ban alleged hackers which, to some players, is much more effective than the VAC program. Sometimes, this system is used to regularly check players and see if the others agree if someone is truly hacking. However, to some "innocent" players, this method is often decried as being "unfair" as some "vengeful" players may issue the voting system to kick or ban players whom they simply do not like. Furthermore, it will take more than one player to agree if another person is hacking, depending on the amount of players in that server. Exceptions VAC does not ban players who use sv_cheats since it is considered to be a built-in cheat and it can only be enabled by an admin. If enabled, all players have the ability to use cheats. VAC will only ban players who use third party cheats. VAC is not shared between GoldSrc and Source engines. For example, if a player is banned from GoldSrc servers, he or she can still play in Source servers. Overwatch To address the flaws that VAC had, Valve implemented a new program called "CS:GO Overwatch" to aid in identifying suspected cheaters by selecting the most trustworthy players, dubbed Investigators. Investigators are given a new menu item which presents the Investigator with the ability to watch demos of suspected cheaters, dubbed the Suspect. After watching 8 rounds of play, the Investigator decides whether the Suspect was cheating or not. If the collective group of Investigators believe the Suspect to be cheating, he or she will be banned from Valve servers. The Suspect demos available to Investigators are part of an automated process resulting from regular player reporting and test cases for the purpose of normalizing Investigator scores. Cheating Counter Strike has been a prime target for exploitation by cheaters since its release. In-game, cheating is often referred to as "hacking" in reference to programs or "hax" executed by the user. Known cheats * Wallhacks, which allow the player to see through walls. These work by displaying objects that are normally obscured or replacing opaque game textures with semitransparent ones, allowing the hacker to see enemies before they would normally be in view. As the engine only renders the immediate area around the player, this does not allow a player to see the entire map at once. * Speedhacks, which give the player increased speed. These work by sending false synchronization data to servers. * No recoil, which keeps the player's gun shooting straight on the y axis without a kickback by removing gun physics. * No spread is used to make a player's gun shoot straight along the x axis. * Aimbots, which helps the player aim at enemies by moving the player's view to anticipate an enemy's position. * Auto Firing, which automatically fires at enemies in the player's crosshairs. * ESP, which shows textual information about the enemy, such as, health, name, and distance, and also information about weapons lying around the map, which could be missed without the hack. * Barrel hack, which shows a line that depicts where the enemy is looking. * Anti-flash and anti-smoke, which remove the flashbang and smoke grenade effect. This branched off the wall hack. * Bypassing, which allow the player to activate console commands normally restricted by sv_pure or sv_cheats. Ghosting Many players consider Ghosting a form of cheating. Ghosting is when a dead player who is spectating inform the player's live teammates of the enemies' movements, usually outside of the in-game voice chat. In the technical sense, ghosting is not a form of cheating as it does not modify any game files. Ghosting is not as prevalent in competitive mode, as dead players can only glimpse enemy movements for a few short seconds before being locked to spectating only other teammates, providing only minor information. Classic Casual does not allow dead players to chat (both voicechat and text chat) with alive players to prevent Ghosting. Users connected and spectating a match via GOTV are subject to a timed delay to disallow ghosting. External Links * Valve Anti-Cheat on Wikipedia * Overwatch announcement Category:Softwares